drbobfandomcom-20200214-history
Atheism
"Personally, I'm not here to change any atheists' minds. By the time someone is an atheist, they're usually too close-minded, in my experience." - Dr. Bob Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Like the rest of us, atheists feel more secure in groups where there are others who are like-minded nearby.That's one reason that although less than 10% of the general population is atheist, in forums like Yahoo! Answers they easily represent over 50% of the participants. They need each other and the comfort that groupthink brings. 'Characteristics ' Atheists are by and large insecure. Often, they're rebelling against their parents, and they're seeking to find others who are like-minded. Often, they're atheists because of emotional or spiritual abuse on the part of Christians that they love and/or respect, and acting out this way is really a way of lashing out at the real object of their animosity. People who are insecure get a kick out of bringing others down. It makes them feel better. If we can't elevate ourselves to where we think others are, we often find ways to bring them down to where we feel we are trapped. That's the source of ridicule. 'Rejection of God ' Ask an atheist about God and begin to look carefully at their answers. You’ll find that the LARGE majority of them object to God on emotional grounds, not logical ones. Often they reject God out of hurt. They'll say things like "My mother died when I was four. If God exists, why would he let that happen?" Or they'll argue things like "There's too much suffering in the world, and so God can't exist." You've seen those types of arguments in their many variations. They'll also reject God out of what they think is righteous indignation. They say "My family is religious, and they can't accept that I'm gay. Religious people are rotten, and God is mean." I find it interesting that in these types of objections, they often seem to implicitly agree that God exists, but they refuse to yield to him. Very few people reject God on the basis of unemotional, logical reasoning. 'If God Does Not Exist...' If God does not exist, then there are no objective moral values. If God doesn't exist, there isn't any meaning to life, because what we do does not ultimately matter (Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheist thinker, covered this area in great detail when he declared God is dead, so if you disagree, your argument is with him). Without meaning and value, there is no significance to life. Life is thus illogical, without meaning, disconnected from the universe and life itself, each of us thrust into existence without purpose, jostled around by circumstances that we can only imagine that we control, and destroyed to be replaced in an endless cycle that ultimately makes no difference to the universe or existence. If God does not exist, nihilism is right. Atheism is indeed illogical. Life itself is illogical, and everything about life (including atheism) has no purpose. That's the philosophical view, at least. The pragmatic view is much simpler. Atheism requires one to emphatically say that there is no all-knowing being in existence; the problem is that to make such a statement, one must be all-knowing. Thus, atheism is self-contradictory and is thus an illogical conclusion. Either way, atheism is an illogical choice. 'Burden of Proof ' Many atheistswill say that the burden of proof is not on them, and that someone else has to prove God exists for them. This is both intellectually lazy and philosophically incorrect. First, if there is even the possibility that God exists and what we do in life matters, then it's incumbent upon each of us to figure that out! But the claim that you cannot prove a negative is simply false: indeed, the non-existence of something CAN be proven by showing that descriptions of it are self-contradictory, or if known facts make it impossible for that thing to exist. The whole "burden of proof" objection is just an intellectual hiding of one's head in the sand. It's running from the question altogether. "In my opinion, these people are the most 'lost' simply because they don't know where they are, and they won't ask directions or look at a map." - Dr. Bob 'Atheism as a Religion ' It could be argued that atheism is indeed a religion, because it involves making claims about the supernatural for which no natural or scientific evidence can be provided to support. If you can make unprovable, existential assertions about what lies beyond the natural world -- the realm of the super-natural -- then you're talking about religious belief, pure and simple. If you declare "God exists," then you're making unprovable statements about supernatural things. If you declare "God doesn't exist", then you're STILL making unprovable statements about supernatural things. Either way, you're relying on belief, and basing your whole future on whether or not your conclusions are true. 'Duality ' It’s ironic that atheists frequently accuse Christians of duality. Logical arguments for God's existence rely on the same logic and the same set of rules applied to ALL forms of belief, so the atheist charge is incorrect. But talk about whether or not atheism is a religion, and atheists -- in an all-out effort to avoid the label "religion" -- suddenly want special dispensation or a change in the rules for themselves. 'Trivia ' *Atheism is legally recognized as a religion. You can have an atheist engraving on your government-issued tombstone, if you're a member of the military. There are a number of legally recognized atheist churches throughout the country. And it is the atheists that have pushed to have atheism recognized as a religious belief. 'Related Topics' *Burden of Proof *Faith in God *Genetic Fallacy *God is a Bad God *Intelligence *Pascal's Wager *Problem of Evil *Proving a Negative *Religion *Science *Zeitgeist Movie Category:Dr. Bobisms